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Randy Carlyle figured his team might be sloppy in its first game after the Olympic break.

But 60-plus minutes of mistake-laden hockey? The Maple Leafs coach was ticked after watching his players cough up a couple of one-goal leads in the third period and lose 5-4 in overtime on Thursday against a depleted New York Islanders group.

Carlyle was justifiably disappointed. Break or not, there was no excuse for losing against a team that didn’t have injured captain John Tavares, and remains 17 points back of the Leafs in the Eastern Conference standings.

“We gave them three goals,” Carlyle said. “You can’t win in the NHL giving them three goals. They were gifts, total gifts. I have no other word to describe the goals we gave up.

“We were fortunate to get a point.”

Carlyle was eager to see whether his emphasis on defence-first hockey through the post-Olympic mini-camp had sunk in, and it was clear from the opening faceoff that it had not. It’s not as though the Leafs had half of their players competing in Sochi. With just Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk and Nikolai Kulemin in Russia, Carlyle had plenty of time since last Wednesday — a total of seven practice days — to send a message to his players that shoddy defence wasn’t going to get it done in the final 22 games.

Yet the Leafs played the puck like a hot potato against an Islanders team that had to scramble to get players from the minors this week.

How bad was it for Toronto? It gave up two shorthanded goals to Michael Grabner in a span of 48 seconds in the first period, on the same power play.

Grabner’s second goal will be among the finalists at season’s end if anyone cares to list the ugliest goals given up by the Leafs in 2013-14.

Goaltender Jonathan Bernier came out of his net to play the puck, and thought a backhand pass to Morgan Rielly in front of the open cage would work out just fine.

But no.

Bernier’s pass deflected off a surprised Rielly’s skate and directly to Grabner, who didn’t bother taking the time to digest his good fortune before putting the puck into the net, as Rielly and Bernier scrambled, for a 2-1 Islanders lead.

“I tried to fake the pass on the wall because everyone was everyone was changing, and my last peek on (Rielly), I thought he was going further so I tried to pass it to him, and it was miscommunication,” Bernier said. “Sometimes, when you don’t play in a while, those kind of plays happen, and probably I should have been more safe and played it back into the corner.”

But Grabner wasn’t the lone gaffe-enabled Islander.

On the winning goal by defenceman Lubomir Visnovsky, three Leafs — Jake Gardiner, Morgan Rielly and Mason Raymond — were drawn to Brock Nelson and the puck in the corner to Bernier’s right. The puck came out to van Riemsdyk, who watched in horror as it skipped over his stick and went to Visnovsky, who beat Bernier on the glove side.

“I was just looking to punch it out and it bounced over my stick and that was it,” said van Riemsdyk, his three-assist night ruined.

Kessel opened the scoring in the first and the Leafs got goals from Paul Ranger, Dion Phaneuf and Joffrey Lupul in the third. But they couldn’t clamp down.

Anders Lee, in his third NHL game, scored twice, and never mind that his second goal, which tied the game with under three minutes to play, stood only after a review. It should never have got to that point for the Leafs.

Toronto, in Montreal to face the Canadiens on Saturday, can’t afford to treat teams cavalierly. It’s the NHL. Do that, and lose.

“Mentally, we looked like we were going to out-skill the hockey club we played against, and they had a different attitude,” Carlyle said. “They tried to grind it with us, and we didn’t play anywhere near the compete, grind game we are capable of. We had two one-goal leads in the third period. Those are the frustrating parts right now.”

BERNIER: ‘NOT A GOOD NIGHT’

For the Maple Leafs to win hockey games, Jonathan Bernier is going to have to be a lot steadier than he was on Thursday night.

Bernier gave up five goals on 35 shots in a 5-4 overtime loss against the New York Islanders.

“From my standpoint, I thought my rebound control was not great,” Bernier said. “I have to make more saves. Five goals, it’s not a good night. But we got a point and have to move on.”

Bernier has kept the Leafs in games this season, but could not do so in the third period, when the Leafs twice held a one-goal lead.

Whether the performance opens the door for James Reimer to start against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t be a stunner for coach Randy Carlyle to make that call.